vue
the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association
JUNE 2012
Suppliers and Client-Side Researchers: Bridging the Great Divide
Eight Ways to Evaluate Your Email Marketing Performance The Running Battles
among Athletic Shoe Brands
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932
Customer Onboarding:
Building Customer Loyalty Early
Girl Gone Viral: The Sharing and Consumption of Digital Content
vue JUNE 2012
VUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE MARKETING RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION TEN TIMES A YEAR
In this month’s features: (L to R) Sandra Marshall, Nicole Merrett, Ruth M. Corbin, Kristian Gravelle, David Lithwick
FEATURES 10 GIRL GONE VIRAL: THE SHARING AND CONSUMPTION OF DIGITAL CONTENT by Sandra Marshall 14 EIGHT WAYS TO EVALUATE YOUR EMAIL MARKETING PERFORMANCE by Nicole Merrett 16 THE RUNNING BATTLES AMONG ATHLETIC SHOE BRANDS by Ruth M. Corbin and Fiona Isaacson 20 SUPPLIERS AND CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHERS: BRIDGING THE GREAT DIVIDE by Kristian Gravelle 24 CUSTOMER ONBOARDING: BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY EARLY by David Lithwick and Sylvia Helene Perras
COMMENTARY 4 Editor’s Vue
INDUSTRY NEWS 28 Research Registration System (RRS) 30 Qualitative Research Registry (QRR) 34 People and Companies in the News 32 Gold Seal Certified Research Agencies
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 37 Advance Your Career through Online Learning 38 Congratulations to Our Newest Award Recipients
RESEARCH AGENCY COUNCIL NEWS 29 RAC Board Task Force on Gold Seal Membership
COLUMNISTS 40 CSRC 40 TWO SOLITUDES 40 STANDARDS 41 QUALITAS 41 INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY 42 BRAVE NEW WORLD
ADDRESS The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L’association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing
2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg. 4, Unit 104 Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Tel: (905) 602-6854 Toll Free: 1-888-602-MRIA (6742) Fax: (905) 602-6855 Email: vue@mria-arim.ca Website: www.mria-arim.ca PRODUCTION: LAYOUT/DESIGN LS Graphics Tel: (905) 743-0402, Toll Free: 1-800-400-8253 Fax: (905) 728-3931 Email: info@lsgraphics.com CONTACTS CHAIR, PUBLICATIONS Stephen Popiel, PhD, CMRP Tel: (416) 271-8454 stephen.popiel@TD.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF David Hamburg, Hamburg Consulting (514) 972-0662 david.hamburg@sympatico.ca MANAGING EDITOR Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA amgabriel@mria-arim.ca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP (647) 855-5088 christianmuellerphd@gmail.com COPY EDITOR Siegfried Betterman Interested in joining the Vue editorial team? Contact us at vue@mria-arim.ca 2012 ADVERTISING RATES Frequent advertisers receive discounts. Details can be found by going to: www.mria-arim.ca/advertising/vue.asp Please email vue@mria-arim.ca to book your ad. The deadline for notice of advertising is the first of the previous month. All advertising material must be at the MRIA office on the 5th of the month. Original articles and Letters to the Editor are welcome. Materials will be reviewed by the Vue Editorial Team. If accepted for publication, they may be edited for length or clarity and placed in the electronic archives on the MRIA website. The opinions and conclusions expressed in Vue are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. Publishing Date: June, 2012 © 2012. All rights reserved. Copyright rests with the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All requests for permission for reproduction must be submitted to MRIA at publications@mria-arim.ca. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing 2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg 4, Unit 104, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932 ISSN 1488-7320
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
Editor’s Vue David Hamburg
It’s summertime and the reading is easy, especially if marketing research piques your interest. In this expanded issue, we present you with a group of feature pieces that are particularly relevant in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. Consider how email campaigns seem to have replaced mass mailings. Still, many businesses inadvertently spam up well-intentioned email campaigns. Nicole Merrett’s article on email marketing performance explains how we can develop effective quality digital mailing campaigns. Yes, we have become cyber-communicators, even in the way we share information. Who has time to chat on the phone when we can share information with the click of a mouse? In her article (and my favourite title in this issue), “Girl Gone Viral,” Sandra Marshall explores the new, increasingly popular phenomenon of online content sharing and what makes it tick.
C’est l’été, un doux temps pour la lecture, surtout si la recherche marketing pique votre curiosité. Dans ce numéro augmenté, nous vous présentons un groupe d’articles qui sont particulièrement pertinents dans le paysage des affaires qui évoluent si rapidement de nos jours. Songez à quel point les campagnes par courriel semblent avoir remplacé le publipostage. Pourtant, de nombreuses entreprises transforment par inadvertance en pourriels des campagnes bien intentionnées. L’article de Nicole Merrett sur le rendement du marketing par courriel explique comment on peut élaborer des campagnes efficaces par courrier numérisé de qualité. Oui, nous sommes devenus des cybernautes, même dans la façon dont nous partageons l’information. Qui a le temps de jaser au téléphone quand on peut partager l’information en un clic de la souris? Dans son article (mon préféré dans ce numéro) Girl Gone Viral [La fille virale], Sandra Marshall explore le nouveau phénomène de plus en plus populaire du partage de contenus en ligne et ce qui les rend attirants.
We also share a great passion for what we wear, the labels that we slap on our bodies to broadcast to the world that we, like the once humble running shoe, are now fashion and lifestyle statements in our own right. Who would dare to sport an unbranded pair of sneakers? Not me. Perhaps this is the reason I was so fascinated with frequent contributor Ruth Corbin’s study, “The Running Battles among Athletic Shoe Brands.” Now I have a far greater understanding of the true value of the major brand names in this colossal market.
On partage aussi une grande passion pour ce qu’on porte, pour les étiquettes qu’on flanque sur nos corps pour annoncer au monde que, tout comme le basket autrefois si humble, on est devenu de plein droit la mode et l’assertion sur les styles de vie. Qui oserait porter une paire de baskets sans nom de marque? Pas moi. C’est peut-être pourquoi j’ai été si fasciné par l’étude de notre contributrice régulière Ruth Corbin intitulée The Running Battles among Athletic Shoe Brands [Courses constantes entre les marques de souliers athlétiques]. Je comprends beaucoup mieux maintenant la réelle valeur des grandes marques dans ce marché colossal.
There’s something practical that all MRIA members can pick up from Kristian Gravell’s comprehensive article on the marketing research supplier – insights into key relationships, in “Suppliers and Client-Side Researchers: Bridging the Great Divide.”
Par ailleurs, tous les membres de l’ARIM trouveront quelque chose de pratique dans l’article de fond de Kristian Gravell sur le fournisseur de recherche marketing – des perspectives sur les relations clés, dans Suppliers and ClientSide Researchers: Bridging the Great Divide [Chercheurs cotés fournisseur et client : Comment fermer le grand écart].
Wrapping up this month’s features is another familiar MRIA contributor, David Lithwick, with his study of loyalty in “Customer Onboarding: Building Customer Loyalty Early.”
En conclusion au thème de ce mois, on trouve un autre contributeur familier de l’ARIM, David Lithwick, et son étude sur la loyauté, dans Customer Onboarding: Building Customer Loyalty Early [Un nouveau client arrive : la fidélisation doit commencer tôt].
Enjoy this issue. After all, it’s summertime and the living is easy.
Profitez de ce numéro. Après tout, c’est l’été, un doux temps pour la lecture.
David Hamburg, Market Research Consultant, Hamburg Consulting Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédacteur en chef, Vue • Email: david.hamburg@sympatico.ca • (514) 972-0662 • t david_hamburg 4
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Message from the Chairs, 2012 MRIA National Conference Conference Co/Chair Corinne MacGillivray King
Conference Co/Chair Carolyn O’Keefe
Hello, honorary Newfoundlanders!
Well, the caplin are rolling and the whales are close to shore, bringing, as many of you came to realize, fog, wind and cool weather – what a contrast and delight for the senses. But we didn’t let the weather bring us down. What fun we had networking, learning, and getting to know our fellow MRIA members! We hope you enjoyed sampling our place as well as the engaging discussions on where we are headed as an industry and how we can keep challenging ourselves and embracing change. We attempted to provide a setting for delegates, speakers, research buyers and research providers that highlighted contrasts in thinking and encouraged all of us to see things differently. The conference taught us many things, not the least of which was just how vibrant and alive our industry is and how committed we are to evolving. Also, it taught us that it requires the talents and time of many individuals across many organizations to make things happen. We would like to extend a special thank you to the staff at the MRIA national office, the conference speakers, and the many volunteers who made the conference an event to remember. Your commitment and dedication are greatly appreciated; we could not have done it without you.
Bonjour Terre-Neuviens et Terre-Neuviennes honoraires! Eh bien, les caplans roulent et les baleines sont près de la côte apportant, comme plusieurs d’entre vous l’avez réalisé, de la brume, du vent et des températures fraiches – quel contraste et quel délice pour les sens. Mais nous n’avons pas permis au temps de nous démonter. Comme nous avons eu du plaisir à faire du réseautage, à apprendre et à connaître davantage nos pairs membres de l’ARIM! Nous espérons que vous avez aimé avoir un échantillonnage de notre environnement tout en poursuivant des discussions sur la direction que prend notre industrie et sur la façon de continuer à nous lancer des défis et à accepter le changement. Nous avons tenté d’offrir un environnement aux délégués, aux conférenciers et aux acheteurs et fournisseurs de recherche qui mettait l’accent sur les contrastes dans les idées et nous encourageait tous à voir les choses différemment. La conférence nous a appris bien des choses, en particulier jusqu’à quel point notre industrie est vivante et dynamique et à quel point nous nous sommes engagés à progresser. De plus, elle nous a appris qu’il faut les talents et le temps d’un grand nombre de personnes provenant de plusieurs organisations pour que les choses se produisent. Nous tenons à remercier tout spécialement le personnel du bureau national de l’ARIM, les conférenciers et le grand nombre de bénévoles qui ont fait de cette conférence un événement mémorable. Votre engagement et votre dévouement sont grandement appréciés; nous n’aurions pas pu réaliser cet événement sans vous.
We miss you here on the “Edge,” and George Street misses you too. May our paths cross again. Come back often!
Vous nous manquez ici, « on the Edge », et vous manquez à George Street aussi. Espérons que nos chemins se croiseront à nouveau. Revenez souvent!
Have a great summer.
Bon été.
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Thank You to all of our Exhibitors! 3Q Global....................................................10
Network Research Field Services................2
ACCE International.................................. 29/30
Research House Inc............................... 26
Acrobat Research / Cido..................................3
Research Now.................................. 34/35
ASDE Survey Sampler...................................24
Opinions Ltd......................................... 17
CLS Lexi-tech...............................................27
SM Research...........................................9
Canadian Viewpoint Inc.................................28
SSI...................................................... 12
Confirmit.....................................................25
Telepoll................................................ 18
Destination St. John’s.................................TBD
Tobii Technology Inc.................................1
LMS Prolink Litd...........................................32
Toluna.................................................. 16
MRIA - Institute For Professional Development...7
Uthink Online OA Student Awards Inc....... 23
Marketing Research Institute International.....TBD
Voxco.................................................. 13
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MRIA Institute for Professional Development
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Waterloo Insurance................................ 33
Thank You to our Conference Speakers KEYNOTES Bruce MacDonald Lenny Murphy Seamus O’Regan Jim Barnes
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada GreenBook and BrandScan 360 CTV National News Barnes Marketing Associates, Inc.
PANELLISTS AND SESSION PRESENTERS Margot Acton, CMRP TNS Jenna Alexandre Fresh Intelligence Research Corp. Tricia Benn Rogers Connect Market Research Daniel Berkal The Palmerston Group Inez Blackburn University of Toronto Derek Blair ATB Financial Dominick Bovalino Harley Davidson® Canada Sean Campbell Cascade Insights Simon Chen Ramius Corporation Laura Craig, CMRP Ipsos John Crockett, CMRP Environics Cam Davis, PhD, CMRP, FMRIA Social Data Research Richard Einarson Chaordix Inc. Adam Froman Delvinia Donya Germain, CMRP ACCE International Behzad Ghotb Hotspex Susan Ince, CMRP Epic Consulting Fiona Isaacson CorbinPartners Inc. Matthew Kerby, PhD Memorial University of Newfoundland Amy Knowles TNS Canada Steve Levy, CMRP Ipsos Bernie Malinoff, CMRP element54 Memorial University of Newfoundland Alex Marland, PhD Lang McGilp Insightrix Research Inc. Sharon McIntyre Chaordix Inc. Scott Megginson Millward Brown Todd Nowensky Minavox Annie Pettit Conversition Strategies Lindsay Porter Ipsos Corrine Sandler Fresh Intelligence Research Corp. Brian Singh, CMRP ZINC Research Shane Skillen, CMRP Hotspex Stephen Thompson Ramius Corporation Barry Watson, PhD, CMRP Environics Craig Wight, CMRP VP, New Brunswick Region, MQO
THANK YOU to our MRIA 2012 National Conference Volunteers Committees and Members Program Committee Chair: Carol Wilson, CMRP Kamal Sharma, Manager, Sobeys Milena Shillow, Kraft Canada Alex Marland, Memorial University Eleanor Austin, e-telligence Rudy Nadilo, Annik Technology Services Trade Show Committee Chair: Anastasia Arabia, Trend Research Allison Mullaley, MQO Research Andrea Ward Tamara Malashenko, The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada Social Committee Chair: Tracy Rideout, MQO Research John Crockett, Research House/An Environics Company Catherine Kelly, CMRP, J. Tobacco David Head, MQO Research Jennifer Tilk, The Neilsen Company Marketing and Communications Committee Chair: Anne Marie Gabriel, Managing Editor, Vue Magazine, MRIA Jennifer Tilk, The Neilsen Company Marie-Helene St. Amand, MQO Research Sponsorship Committee Chair: Bruce Jones, Bruce Jones & Associates Ltd. Jordan Levitin, CMRP, Ipsos Craig Wight, VP Research, MQO Research Rick Hobbs, CMRP Elizabeth Brouse, MQO Research
Thanks for joining us in St. John’s! Visit us at www.mria-arim.ca/Conference2012
Girl Gone Viral The Sharing and Consumption of Digital Content Sandra Marshall, CMRP
Everyone’s a journalist. Creation and publication of original content has been made easier on the Internet, providing us all with easy access to that digital soapbox. Content sharing has become an interesting and growing phenomenon, made possible via social media and other online channels. We need to go no further than our inboxes or Facebook accounts to see the relevance of shared digital content in our daily lives. And, once digital content has been shared, the recipient may then choose to consume and perhaps even redistribute it. Thanks to social media and other channels, digital content (in the form of text, video, audio, photos, etc.) is shared and consumed long after its original circulation, enjoying a productive afterlife in the digital world. Such content is passed along, commented upon, referenced, recommended, 10
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resurfaced, re-tweeted, and otherwise shared with others. We hear about “earned media,” or content that has “gone viral” – all thanks to our ability to redistribute and reference digital content with the touch of a key, through mechanisms that support efficient communication to the masses. A lot is known about the sharing of content, mainly through directly observable behavioural, or tracked, data (via social media monitoring databases and behavioural analytics, for example) that show how or where content is shared across the Internet. These data then need to be pieced together, reconciling all the individual elements, in order to understand the sum of the parts in terms of content-sharing behaviour. However, there is little, if anything, to show the flip side of the coin, that is, the consumption of this shared content. Further
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we don’t know why content is shared: What are the motivating factors? For that matter, why is content sometimes not shared? These were the kinds of questions that piqued the curiosity of Federated Media Publishing (FMP, federatedmedia. net). FMP is a network of independent bloggers and web publishers who offer advertisers an opportunity to reach highly engaged audiences and communities in various spheres – living, technology, business. FMP has partnered with Crowd Science (crowdscience.com) in order to conduct audience measurement research and unlock these mysteries. The methodology uses ongoing surveys.
Data collection has been ongoing since December 2011, via two separate questionnaires addressing content sharing and content consumption. Across the Federated Media network of websites, randomly selected visitors are presented with an invitation to participate in the online survey. In order to reduce respondent fatigue, the survey consists of two questionnaires in a between-groups design: one questionnaire investigates the act of content sharing, while the other investigates content consumption. The surveys run for a few weeks at a time in alternating sequence. To date, thousands of respondents have participated in each of the two parts of the survey. Data cited in this article are based on total sample sizes of over 4,000 respondents in each survey, the surveys conducted between mid-December 2011 through mid-March 2012.
As one might expect, past-seven-day consumption activity skews somewhat higher than does sharing activity. Just think of the number of items in an inbox versus sent mail: people probably receive content from multiple parties, providing more content-consuming occasions than they produce themselves by sharing. Past-seven-day sharing activity shows a fairly even distribution among those sharing 1–5 times, 6–20 times, and over 20 times in the past week. Meanwhile, consuming digital content more than 20 times in the past seven days is twice as prevalent as consumption levels of 1–5 times. See figure 1. Text and photos are the most popular formats.
When it comes to what people share and consume, text and photos are the most popular types of content (each shared or consumed by about three-quarters of respondents). These are followed by videos (shared or consumed by roughly one-half ), and music/audio (shared or consumed by roughly one-third). See figure 2. Figure 2: Popularity of Content Formats
Sharing and consumption of digital content are on the rise.
Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents (about 2 in 3) feel that their sharing and consumption of digital content have increased over the past year. About 3 in 10 feel that they haven’t changed, and only 2 to 3 per cent feel they have decreased. Figure 1: Past-Seven-Day Frequency
Text messaging may be the channel to watch.
Text messaging is one of the three leading vehicles for content sharing and content consumption. The popularity of text messaging for the distribution and consumption of shared content is a testament to the rise of mobile device use. Text messaging almost keeps pace with the top two delivery channels (email and Facebook) over which content has been shared or consumed in a past-thirty-day period. Twitter and instant messaging (IM) follow these somewhat distantly. Meanwhile, the majority of those sharing content via Facebook use it to its full potential and distribute content to their entire network of friends. See figure 3.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Figure 3: Popularity of Content Channels
Social influences have a significant pull on consumption decisions.
The subject matter of content is considered very or extremely important to the vast majority (85%) of respondents in their decision to consume specific content. In fact, subject matter is cited by the largest proportion – almost one-half – as the single most important factor in this decision. Perceptions of the source sharing the content runs second in level of importance (most important for 3 in 10), surpassing perceptions of the original author of the content (cited by 1 in 10). So respondents place more stock in who shared the content than in who created it, putting more social emphasis on our decisions regarding the content we consume. It’s not business; it’s personal.
Respondents revealed that content is shared mostly (30%) or completely (another 31%) for personal purposes. For an additional 23 per cent, it’s shared equally between work and personal purposes. And for a small minority, content is shared mostly (13%) or entirely (2%) for work. Not only is the purpose of content sharing largely personal (versus work-related), but the nature of sharing is also a personal – and a social – matter. Most of the study participants share items in order to inform (8 in 10) or to entertain (7 in 10). These motives tend to be fairly altruistic and outwardly beneficial, and are also consistent with the importance of the subject matter. 12
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For smaller proportions of respondents, the motives seem a bit more self-satisfying or self-centred: About 1 in 3 say that they share in order to state or represent their position (to be heard). And for 18 per cent in each case, the reason for sharing is to influence others’ beliefs (to persuade others to think like them) or to be part of the online conversation (to fulfil a wish to belong). The most commonly cited reasons why people don’t share content appear to be consistent with the reasons why they do share. The main reason not to share is that the content is not interesting (58%) or it is irrelevant (48%). Just more than 4 in 10 in each case say it’s because that content has already made the rounds (was previously shared in their network) or because the content is inappropriate or offensive. All these reasons speak to the nature of the content itself, and they complement the main reasons people do share content (because it would be informative or interesting). Interestingly, there is some sensitivity involved in the behaviour of sharing, in terms of sensitivity both to self as well as to others. Specifically, 16 per cent don’t share content, because they are concerned about the backlash of negative reactions/comments; and 18 per cent don’t want to overwhelm their network (a testament to the amount of content that tends to be shared). As the source sharing the content is an important factor in the process of content consumption, it is appropriate that the act of content sharing is a conscious and deliberate behaviour. This is evident in the care and effort that goes into sharing. A large majority (86% indicated the bottom two boxes on a seven-point scale) disagree that they pass along content without first reviewing it. Further, only 14 per cent strongly agree (top two boxes) with the statement that “most of the content others try to share with me is crap.” About 50 per cent of all respondents always or almost always make the effort to introduce, comment on, or summarize content when sharing it through any channel. About 60 per cent provide comments on an article or on other comments; and of those who do, the most common motivation is to contribute additional information (66%) or to support a position (63%). You are what you share?
Not necessarily. It may be that people place too much stock in how the content they share reflects on them, given the sentiments of those on the receiving end. A notable proportion of those sharing content (one-half) feel that the content they share is a significant reflection of themselves. However, for those consuming content, a comparatively smaller proportion (only 2 in 10) feel that their opinion of people is swayed by the content those people share.
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Interestingly, this halo effect also works in the other direction: Well-liked authors or bloggers can favourably impact a brand with which they are associated (for 6 in 10 respondents). So what does all this mean?
Sharing of content is mainly a personal (versus work-related) activity and tends to be social in nature. While the content’s subject matter governs most people’s decisions, certain social factors definitely have some effect on sharing and consumption behaviours. The halo effects exerted by brand association and author association mean that care must be taken to ensure that these influences are positive ones. Content sharing tends to be a deliberate and thoughtful action. However, as much as people think the content they share is a significant reflection of themselves, only a small So, although people place a fair degree of importance on the “sharer” of content as a determining factor in the consumption of that content, apparently there isn’t a huge risk that the sharer’s image will be tarnished by the content distributed, in spite of what the sharers themselves may think. Obligation to reciprocate when consuming content via social networks is a factor for less than half of respondents. According to the study, it would seem that if those in our social circle actively consume (i.e., click on or comment on) content that we share with them, we don’t necessarily feel obliged to reciprocate. So, just because our friends pay attention to what we share with them, we don’t feel a need, in return, to click on every bit of content they send to us. Over one-half don’t feel very or at all obligated to consume the content, while only 4 in 10 feel somewhat (32%) or very (7%) obligated. Although reciprocation is a very social behaviour, it may be trumped by the greater imperative of content subject matter.
proportion of those who consume content feel that their opinion of the sender is actually influenced by that content. Therefore, although the sharers of content have a significant influence on whether the content is consumed (even more influence than the original author), sharers are not as strongly prone to any halo effect that the content might have on them. Favourably viewed sharers of content may help in breathing new life into content that is older, or associated with lesser-known or less respected authors, without too much worry that the content will affect their reputation. So, for those of you wondering whether to share this article with people you know, you can probably go ahead. After all, if it’s interesting enough, it’ll be read. In any case, it isn’t likely to harm your reputation.
Brand association and author association – it’s a two-way street.
A sponsoring company, when associated with content, can have a significant effect on the sharing and consumption of that content. Sentiment toward the sponsoring company definitely has a halo effect, even more so when the sentiment is negative: about 7 in 10 respondents indicated they would be less inclined to consume or share content that was sponsored by a brand they disliked. A similar but slightly reduced effect is seen when the brand is liked, with about 6 in 10 more inclined to share or consume the content associated with a brand they like.
Sandra Marshall, CMRP, worked most recently as VP Research at Crowd Science, a provider of first party audience measurement, segmentation and targeting opportunities for the world’s largest premium publishers and content networks. She can be contacted via LinkedIn or at sm_marketresearch@hotmail.com vue June 2012
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EIGHT WAYS TO
ELEVATE
YOUR EMAIL
MARKETING PERFORMANCE Nicole Merrett
Successful email marketing campaigns are typically defined as such because they have higher “open rates” as well as higher “response rates” and ultimately generate higher revenue. Small businesses busy with everyday tasks often need a little help – a blueprint leading them to results they’d define as “successful.” What follows are eight suggestions to help you craft more effective email campaigns. 1. The subject line is key. Everyone has heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Unfortunately, there is sometimes reason to do so – because it’s a natural instinct. First impressions are critical in any form of communication. When people receive an email, the first thing they see is the subject line, which has the potential to either gain or lose their interest. Subject lines that include your company’s name as a reference and provide specifics supporting your email topic will typically gain higher open rates. 2. Pay attention to who it’s from. To understand how important this is, think about your own inbox. Would you be more likely to open an email sent from advertising@ xyzcorp.com or one from nicole.merrett@sage.com? 14
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People don’t want to feel that they are receiving an automated email. If readers don’t see you putting time into personalizing the “from” address, they won’t spend time considering what you have to say. 3. Use mail merge. People love seeing their own name: It makes them feel that the email was written to them personally, and not sent to recipient #432. Online services have simple options that allow you to insert names from your contact database using a template editor. 4. Employ variety. Sending an email can be one of the most effective ways to grab readers’ attention. However, if you abuse the efficiencies that email marketing provides, readers will stop showing interest in what they receive from you. Consistency is essential with any marketing campaign, but variety is equally important. How often do you send out newsletters, event invites, and updates that aren’t just soliciting a purchase? Are you getting an active response from recipients? If not, try something new. Be conscious of how many emails you send out each week or month. How are individuals interacting
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with your emails? Are you following up accordingly? How are you engaging the people that seem uninterested? Some email services include click-through analytics that monitor which readers spend time with your emails or forward them to colleagues. Chalaran Direct Marketing, a firm that represents tourism services and entertainment providers in Barbados, uses a tool from Sage E-marketing to view open rates of its emails to hotels. Employees call recipients who have spent the most time with an email and are thus more likely to be interested in the company’s services. Chalaran likewise adjusts messages to recipients who do not spend much time with a particular email.
sending. Spam-check services review email content to see what might get caught in spam filters. 8. And test some more using A/B testing. Your email has passed all the tests: it looks good; it has working web links, properly placed images, and a call to action; it has made it through the spam check. But it is not getting the open rates you expected. How come? There are many reasons, including the message itself, the time of day it was sent, the day of the week and the frequency with which it was sent. So why not test it?
5. Emphasize quality over quantity. It’s far more important to send out content-rich emails than it is to send out long or multiple emails. When you provide your contacts with quality content, they’re more inclined to read your emails and even forward them to friends. Gain the trust of your contacts by emphasizing quality of communication over quantity. One option is to provide information that readers can use immediately. A seller of gardening supplies, for example, might offer a series of horticulture tips; when prospects are in need of planting materials, they are likely to think of the insightful supply marketer first.
Test one change at a time. For example, explore what days your recipients are more likely to open your email. Split up your list and send each set the same email on different days. Does the open rate stand out more on one day than another? The next step could be to determine the time of a particular day when people are more willing to open and interact with your email. Again, split up your list and send out the same email at different times of the day. Good starting points are the beginning of the day and the middle of the afternoon. Studies have shown these are the best times of day to send emails. See if your tests concur.
6. Focus on content. How can you personalize your message content? Listen to your readers; the people who take time to contact you are most likely to become customers. Study their emails, questions, likes and dislikes. Build or improve products according to the input from your customers; they will notice your appreciation and remain loyal. Social media monitoring is one easy way to listen to and engage your readers. Pay attention to what customers are saying online about your services and your industry. Use these insights to create valuable email content. 7. Test everything. Test the way your email appears, not only through your own email service provider, but through several other providers as well. Test all links in your message to make sure they work. And test your graphics. Pictures are a great way to grab someone’s attention, but remember that pictures don’t always show up in email messages; so test the effectiveness of your email by viewing it in an email client, with images turned off, making sure that your message remains easy to understand and the call-toaction clear. Finally, test your email with a spam-check tool before
After you have a specific day and time when recipients are most responsive, examine your content. What sort of subject line gains the highest response? Do your recipients react more to graphics or text? Consider the placement of your call to action. Is one position more effective than another? Do your recipients appreciate lengthy, informational emails, or do they prefer a quick read? Test each element, one at a time. With email marketing, you never need to settle for one formula, because you will often have the flexibility to make improvements as you go. So take advantage of trends and technology, and make them the constants in your digital marketing programs: they will help you achieve more tangible results with your campaigns.
Nicole Merrett is vice-president of CRM marketing for Sage North America, a supplier of business management software and services for small- and mid-sized businesses. vue June 2012
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THE RUNNING BATTLES AMONG ATHLETIC SHOE BRANDS
Famous running shoe brands can’t rely on their fame alone; they need the support of market evidence to protect their allure and distinctiveness. The research industry is evolving and offers plenty of new ideas to help safeguard brand value. Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP and Fiona Isaacson
What you wear on your feet tells the world a great deal about you. Retailers showcase their shoes accordingly. When shoppers spot an eye-catching pair of shoes, they may make an immediate assessment about its brand identity, based on familiar design elements and colours, and then proceed to draw inferences about its quality and prestige. Such perceptions, whether accurate or not, may lead shoppers to try on the shoes, and then perhaps to purchase them. The value of the brand may live on after the purchase – in the image it creates for the wearer, or even in envy, which sometimes provokes outright theft from school lockers and gym bags. Such is the influence that branding has on consumer attitude and behaviour. With increasing public emphasis on fitness and sports, athletic shoes have risen in importance to consumers in the last thirty years.1 The retail market has responded with broader varieties of shoes, a wider range of prices, and the appearance of specialty retail stores dealing almost exclusively in athletic shoes. Given the availability of so 16
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much variety and choice to consumers, branding can be instrumental to a shoe company’s success. Companies who rely on the selling power of their brand must be critically concerned with protecting their brand from confusion with other shoe brands, from counterfeiting, and from depreciation by look-alikes. Amid the hundreds of choices for athletic shoes in Canada, there has emerged a relatively small set of famous brands. While the term famous brand has not been well defined in marketing or in law, it is generally considered by marketers to be a brand with recognition among at least 66 per cent of the pertinent population, even if the actual market share is smaller. Brand studies in the last ten years have suggested that the following athletic shoe brands have attained the status of being “famous” in Canada: adidas, Fila, K-Swiss, New Balance, Nike, Puma, and Reebok. Famous brands retain their prestigious image when their owners maintain consistent quality and trusted distribution channels.
F EATUR E
Owners of famous brands typically incorporate trademark designs (picture the Nike swoosh or Puma’s leaping cat) to communicate the brand to consumers as they browse retail store displays, and to reinforce the value of the shoe once purchased. So it is not only the famous names, but also their accompanying designs that need vigorous protection. A fascinating series of trade-mark disputes among sellers of athletic shoes in North America reinforces the huge value of the brand and the extent to which companies must apparently go to protect that value. Of particular interest in these disputes has been the marketplace evidence that shoe companies have brought to court to bolster their case – sometimes successfully and sometimes not. In 2008, adidas alleged that Payless Shoesource2 was “wilfully infringing” adidas’ trade-mark rights by marketing and selling footwear bearing confusingly similar imitations of adidas’ three-stripe trade-mark and “Superstar” trade dress. The Payless shoes actually had two or four stripes, but surveys submitted by adidas showed “that two and four stripe footwear creates a likelihood of confusion among consumers who within the next six months were likely to purchase a pair of athletic shoes.” A substantial portion of prospective purchasers surveyed (41%) had actually believed that the Payless four-stripe shoe was made or authorized by adidas. In a different case – against Target Corp, E. S. Originals, and B.U.M. International3 – adidas succeeded with similar evidence, going to post-sale confusion. While post-sale confusion has not frequently been tried as a cause of action in Canada, there is nothing to bar it from being argued and supported by relevant evidence. As with all litigation subject matter, the investment in survey evidence for shoe disputes needs to be protected by adherence to recognized scientific standards. Procedural and methodological errors have sometimes been a survey’s undoing.4 In Starter Corp. v. Converse, Inc.5 (1999), the United States Court of Appeals found that a survey to demonstrate confusion “was little more than a memory test,” and agreed that it was right to keep a survey from the jury when it was “irrelevant” to the issue. However, “as long as expert survey evidence possesses sufficient circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, a court may properly rely upon it to establish the likelihood or remoteness of confusion in a trademark dispute,” the court said. Finally, failure to avail oneself of consumer perception evidence, when it may be readily available, can meet with an adverse inference by courts of law. In Payless Shoesource v. Reebok (1992),6 Reebok’s evidence included declarations, by its private investigator, that certain Payless employees made
comments regarding the similarity between the Payless shoes and the Reebok shoes; but that evidence on its own was considered inconclusive. Even the readily apparent similarity between the brands, based on a simple side-by-side comparison, was “not dispositive on the issue of whether there is a likelihood of confusion,” the court concluded. Presumably, a more systematic market investigation could have provided such dispositive evidence. In another battle, between Reebok and K-Mart (1994),7 the court explicitly decried the absence of evidence of market perceptions. Noting the lack of support for Reebok’s claims of the distinctiveness of its “Stripecheck” design, the court observed that there was no evidence of use of the design in advertising, that the design elements were not always employed consistently by Reebok, and that some design elements bore a similarity to design elements of other company logos. On the issue of alleged confusion, the court observed that “evidence of actual confusion can take two forms – scientific surveys testing the statistical likelihood of confusion among consumers, and incidents of actual confusion. Reebok did not offer a survey into evidence. Nor did Reebok show any incidents of actual confusion between the Titan [K-Mart] and Reebok shoes. Reebok also failed to produce any evidence that the Titan was ‘passed off ’ as a Reebok product at any of the 800 K-Mart stores that carried the Titan.” An adverse inference was drawn. The court concluded that Reebok’s “decision not to conduct a survey strongly suggests that a likelihood of confusion could not be shown.” Reebok lost its case, partly on the basis of other factors, but “lack of survey evidence or other evidence of consumer confusion dispelled any remaining doubts,” the court said. The latest recognized shoe brand to walk into court in Canada is Puma,8 its owners alleging that shoe distributor Chaussures Verona is making, importing, exporting, advertising and selling shoes that bear or embody one or more of Puma’s trade-marks or industrial designs, or have designs that are not substantially different. Puma claims its stripes and its leaping cat trade-mark designs “are among the most famous trade-marks in the world of sports and sport lifestyle.” Puma also alleges that the defendant’s employees have referred to the shoes as being “Puma shoes,” have failed to correct customers as to the source of the footwear, or have referred to the footwear as “Puma knock-offs.” A statement of defence was filed just before this article went to press, claiming, among other things, that Puma’s design elements had lost their distinctiveness. vue June 2012
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In cases such as those reviewed above, several options for market evidence have been available for consideration by plaintiff or defendant – for assistance during the negotiation process or as evidence at trial. First and foremost, the fame of a brand or its design elements can readily be established through survey evidence, bolstered by advertising statistics and media mentions. Such evidence of reputation can be used to weather many trademark battles,whomever the opponent may be. When a given competitor introduces similar design elements, how close is too close for risking consumer confusion? Trade-mark law alludes to the consumer’s psychological state of mind; confusion in the Trade-marks Act is defined in terms of an inference; and passing-off is determined by whether the public is misled. Standard survey templates are available to capture such consumer perceptions, testing the extent, if any, to which consumers misapprehend the source of the allegedly infringing brand. Mystery shopping is another option; it can be used to document the extent to which consumers are deceived or misled at the point of sale. It can be thought of as investigative evidence raised to the standard of social science. Mystery shopping was positively received by the Ontario Superior Court in a dispute between Victoria’s Secret and La Senza lingerie, regarding a new brand campaign by the latter.9 A quantitative analysis of comments made by shoe purchasers or store employees, on the Internet and through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, is another avenue for producing evidence of confusion or brand depreciation, if it exists. Such information may also be used in concert with independent forms of market data to mutually reinforce the conclusions of any one method. (Presenting evidence from multiple methods, all converging on the same conclusion, contributes to the social science standard of “convergent validity.”) Choosing the most advantageous source of market evidence depends on the facts of each case. The principal requirement is that such evidence meet (a) the requirements of validity and reliability set out in Mattel,10 and (b) the requirement of necessity set out in Masterpiece.11 As noted in certain of the cases discussed above, litigants risk an adverse inference if they do not tender evidence that a court sees as being readily available. The continuing battle of the shoe brands demonstrates that the trade-mark and copyright value in the products we buy can be worth more to companies than the financial value of the physical products alone. 18
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Endnotes
1. Even when overall shoe sales have declined, sales of athletic shoes have been less affected than others. See, e.g., Cogitamus Consulting, The Global Footwear Market: Athletic and Nonathletic Shoes, (Packaged Facts, 2009), accessible at http://wulibraries.typepad.com/files/footwear.pdf 2. adidas-America, Inc. and adidas-Salomon AG v. Payless Shoesource, Inc., [2008] U.S.D.C. Oregon, Case Number CV01-1655-K1. 3. adidas-Salomon AG v. Target Corp., [2002] Dist. Court, D. Oregon. Case number 228 F. Supp. 2d 1192. 4. Brooks Shoe Manufacturing Co., Inc., a Pennsylvania Corporation, v. Suave Shoe Corporation, a Florida Corporation, [2008] United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, Case Number 716 F.2d 854. 5. Starter Corporation v. Converse, Inc. [1999] United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Case number 170 F.3d 286. 6. Payless Shoesource, Inc., a Missouri Corporation v. Reebok International Limited and Reebok International Ltd [1992] United States District Court, D. Kansas. Case Number 804 F. Supp. 206. 7. Reebok International Ltd. and Reebok International Limited v. K-Mart Corporation; Melville Corporation; and Leif J. Ostberg, Inc., [1994] U.S.D.C. for the South District of New York, Case Number 849 F.Supp. 252. 8. PUMA et al. v. Intercampus Marketing, Inc. o/a Chaussures Verona et al. was filed in February 21, 2012 in Federal Court. T- 389-12. 9. Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management, Inc., et al, v. La Senza Inc., Superior Court of Justice – Ontario, Court. File No. 06-CV-306933 PD1, March 30, 2006. 10. Mattel, Inc. v. 3894207 Canada, Inc., [2006] 1 S.C.R. 772, 2006 SCC 22. 11. Masterpiece Inc. v. Alavida Lifestyles, Inc., 2011 SCC 27, [2011] 2 S.C.R. 387.
Ruth M. Corbin, PhD, CMRP, is the managing partner of CorbinPartners Inc. and adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. She is chair of MRIA’s Litigation and Regulatory Resource Committee and of the association’s Research Agency Council. Ruth is also the co-author of the textbook Survey Evidence and the Law Worldwide. Fiona Isaacson is a project manager with CorbinPartners Inc. and a member of MRIA’s Market Intelligence Committee.
Suppliers and Client-Side Researchers:
Bridging the Great Divide Kristian Gravelle
The closing panel at this year’s MRIA conference in St. John’s was selected to provide perspectives on how to bridge the gap in client-supplier relationships. MRIA’s Client-Side Researcher Council, in close collaboration with the association’s Research Agency Council, fielded questionnaires to their membership in order to better understand how clients and suppliers perceive their Jack Nicholson relationship to each other. said it best in his The results provided initial insights into where the gaps are. For the most portrayal of the part, clients and suppliers had high Joker in the 1989 levels of satisfaction with each other. movie adaptation Open-ended comments provided the opportunity to formulate hypotheses of Batman: “Why regarding the gaps in client-supplier can’t we all just relationships. A brief overview of the results, presented by Kamal Sharma get along?” (market research manager at Sobeys in Mississauga), outlined the key themes that led to the development of the hypotheses regarding the relationship gaps (see the table on the following page). Based on these results, the panel, led by Scott Megginson (president of Millward Brown Canada), outlined best practices in the key areas in order to address concerns raised by each membership (clients and suppliers), and to investigate working hypotheses. The panellists – Derek Blair (ATB Financial), Chuck Chakrapani (Leger Marketing), Vinu George (Microsoft Canada), Kristian Gravelle (Kraft Foods), Don Marek (Marketing Research Institute International), and 20
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Craig Wight (MQO Research) – represented a broad crosssection of the industry, each with a significant number of years in marketing research. What is the best way to frame the research question?
Ideally, research needs to be framed as a problem or as a business issue. The research supplier needs to be considered as a true business partner and brought into discussions early on. What does this mean? In simple terms, the research supplier should be fully versed in all things important to the business – financial metrics, performance, customer issues, and production. That is, the client must be open and must share all these details, providing business and situational context that is often not present in the briefing session. Engaging the research supplier early on, at the formulation of the business issue, is just as important. Early engagement provides a first-hand perspective as to what the organization is trying to solve and, more importantly, it provides an open dialogue that can dig a little deeper and unearth the true underlying issue, if it was not brought forth initially. It is clear that this scenario is a utopian one that works extremely well for large strategic projects. Now and again, however, the organization will have a pointed question that needs a specific answer. Even in this case, providing contextual and situational data is critical to ensuring that the appropriate answer is uncovered. From a supplier perspective, the projects that receive the greatest level of engagement are the ones in which organizations formulate their need as a business issue
F EATUR E
What We Heard from Clients Positives Opportunities Suppliers make our lives easier. There is a need to encourage collaboration. Suppliers contribute to our success. Where is the value add? Building supplier relationships is key. Feedback will improve productivity. What We Heard from Suppliers Positives Opportunities We appreciate the team approach. There is a disconnect in how projects are awarded. We are proud to be selected for our expertise. Consider rewarding your suppliers. We are considered a valued partner. There is a need to provide better context and engage us early in the process.
question. When the request to the supplier is formulated in a prescriptive fashion, the supplier becomes nothing more than an executioner and has little opportunity to provide incremental value (the term value is being used loosely here and will be better defined later). How do we bridge the gap between satisfaction scores?
Once the partnership process is established, great work is sure to follow. The process of getting to insights happens via co-creation between the supplier and client. This co-creation becomes easier as the relationship grows. The expectation is that, since the supplier was chosen amongst a pool of competing firms, the bar for reporting results is set very high. In terms of reporting, poor quality is demonstrated, in the minds of clients, when the supplier restates reams of data. Restatement of data provides little in terms of understanding how best to answer the issue that the client is seeking to address. The co-creation of data as insights is a process that requires both sides to be fully engaged in the relationship and the project. It is through this type of interaction that satisfaction is achieved in the minds of both the client and the supplier. Different opinions on satisfaction arise when the client becomes prescriptive in both methodology and issue framing, leaving little room for the supplier to work co-operatively. In this type of situation, suppliers are often left with little choice other than restating data; from their perspective, they have met client needs. This outcome may be far from the client’s expectation, as the motivation for engaging with suppliers was to provide broad strategic insights. How do we get added value from suppliers?
Value is a subject that has received some significant attention over the past few decades. Two trends are emerging that will help us to fully appreciate a supplier’s value. In the first, being “different” is regarded as the new norm. While suppliers claim to bring a difference, above and beyond competing suppliers, they often have a hard time expressing it in a meaningful way.
The second trend is insourcing, whereby departments within an organization become experts in their areas and develop do-it-yourself research to meet their needs. The implication of both these trends is that suppliers must work much harder in order to truly show value. Value means different things to different individuals. The panel agreed that value is not necessarily tied to the cost of a project. Value is generated when there is a mutual respect between both parties. Extracting additional cost savings and looking for the most cost-effective suppliers may not be the best strategy; this type of behaviour pushes the industry towards commoditization, and added value becomes difficult to generate. Value is developed during the forging of the relationship between client and supplier. It can take the form of ensuring that the organization stays focused on the issue, as doing so ensures that the insights are actionable. Value is also generated by ensuring that the results are presented and tailored to the audience, and have been developed in co-operation. Key stakeholders and decisionmakers respond best when insights are delivered via storytelling. And the story that is told needs to be focused on two to three key areas pertinent to the immediate need of the organization. Value is not about quality. Quality is the price of entry, as, to some extent, is expertise. Therefore, utilizing innovation in order to get clients to see past the obvious is where value is generated. A big part of getting past the obvious is through the inclusion of perspectives from those who might otherwise not have been present at the beginning of the research cycle or in the discussion of the results. The client researcher’s open-mindedness to working cooperatively with a supplier will often result in the supplier’s approaching the client with new opportunities. These opportunities can take place in the form of the supplier’s working pro bono to develop a methodology or to test an hypothesis in order to move the organization forward. There may not be an immediate need for this approach, or the timing may be wrong; but the gesture goes a long way vue June 2012
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in creating added value in the client researcher’s mind. Value is truly achieved when suppliers can become forward thinkers and bring solutions to issues that the client has not yet fully recognized. When is innovation appropriate?
The panel was unanimous in the perspectives it provided around innovation. The theme of technology has been prevalent in recent conferences, and the consensus of opinion is that, while technology can provide cost savings in the acquisition of data, it is not necessarily tied to innovation. High-performing organizations are comfortable with information and insights, with the result that questions and problems become more complex. Innovation becomes key and provides added value if it generates new perspectives that solve a complex or difficult question. Innovation is an excellent approach to getting past the obvious. Be mindful, however, not to fall into the trap of employing innovative techniques for innovation’s sake. How do suppliers get selected?
The most effective way to get suppliers onto an approved supplier list is to build a relationship with them. Suppliers understand that their particular area of expertise may not be needed at the point of initial contact. Forging a relationship and providing updates on how they have delivered value and solved issues for other clients are sure to keep the client-side researcher engaged. The initial contact can take a variety of forms. All individuals are different and have their preferred methods of contact. In some cases, seeing examples of work presented at conferences is important. Utilizing contacts from past projects to get exposure is another effective way to start a relationship with a new team. More and more, suppliers work together to solve issues. Often, an additional supplier may not be part of the client’s team; however, supplier partnerships provide an excellent opportunity for new suppliers to showcase the level of work they can produce. The key is to build a relationship and make that relationship relevant by bringing forward questions that have not yet been answered. What stands out as a behaviour that pushes a relationship forward?
Showcasing positive behaviours is essential in moving the relationship forward. The following are concrete examples of how suppliers and client-side researchers have moved their relationship forward. • Take the time to formulate the problem or the question. Do not be prescriptive. 22
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• Take the time to tailor the message to the audience. Avoid restating data. • Work with multiple suppliers to answer the issue. Showcase how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. • Take the time to show gratitude. Small gestures of thanks and appreciation go a long way. •O rganizations are always faced with cost pressures. Look for areas of efficiencies beyond price. • Take the time to develop the relationship. Rome was not built in a day. Organizations are complex entities. Changing behaviour can be daunting, but taking a stepwise approach over time will help bridge the gap between suppliers and client-side researchers. Start with one behaviour and slowly build to incorporate others. Where should suppliers focus in the next five years?
The conversation does not stop at changing the way we interact. Engaging client-side researchers in key areas of interest and focus is primary. The conference highlighted many upcoming trends in the industry. From a client-side perspective, the following areas of interest are proving to be key: •D ata integration: Utilize more than one supplier or data source to answer the problem. •E ngagement: High staff turnover in the industry is becoming an issue. •C ost reduction: How can technology address this problem? • I nnovation beyond technology: Get us past the obvious. A final note regarding the client-supplier relationship: It boils down to human nature. Demonstrating trust and respect for each other is the cornerstone to relationship building and will ultimately lead to excellence in research.
Kristian Gravelle, MSc, MBA, has had more than ten years of experience with consumer packaged goods, in marketing and marketing research. He is currently senior marketing research manager at Kraft Foods Canada, where he heads up the consumer insights and strategy function for the hot beverages portfolio. In 2011, Kristian won the Best in Class and Best Integration awards at the MRIA annual conference. He is a member of the association’s Client-Side Researcher Council.
F E ATURE
Customer Onboarding
Building Customer Loyalty Early
David Lithwick and Sylvia Helene Perras
Twenty-five years ago, meeting the customer’s needs was the universal rule among marketers. Then we progressed to surpassing the customer’s needs and, from there, to delivering customer service excellence. Now, the buzz is customer onboarding – that is, what companies do to cement loyalty amongst their new customers during the honeymoon stage (i.e., the first ninety days after sign up). As a concept, customer onboarding is not new. In the 1950s, gas retailers, for example, built strong loyalty by manning their stations with attendants who filled up the gas tanks, cleaned the car windows, and dispensed automotive advice. Caps, bow ties, starched shirts, and Father Knows Best smiles successfully positioned them as neighbourhood friends, people you looked forward to seeing. This was relationship building at its best. Today, more and more companies are doing everything they can to build sales from their client base. And customer onboarding is becoming a key strategy in helping them achieve this end. The goals of this article are to provide the reader with a clear explanation of what onboarding is, to share our experience conducting onboarding research, and to bring reallife examples to the discussion. Employee Onboarding
Twinned with customer onboarding is employee onboarding, that is, what companies do to help new employees acquire 24
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the necessary knowledge and skills to become effective and passionate workers. The objective is to generate greater job satisfaction, better performance, and stronger commitment to the company. Why? Because customer loyalty is directly linked to job satisfaction. When frontline staff is cared for, there is lower turnover, and customers are treated better. In particular, call centres should aim to reduce employee turnover. The more new hires, the greater the likelihood of alienating new customers. New hires lack experience and product knowledge. For sales opportunities, high employee turnover translates into call centre reps who recommend the wrong product option or forget to cross-sell. And for service issues, it leads to increased incidences of indifference and impatience. Research Techniques
Focus groups, benchmarking, mystery shopping, and predictive analytics are the favoured approaches to research into onboarding. The good news is that, being research and intelligence practitioners, we already have the tools to conduct research into onboarding. None of these approaches alone is sufficient to capture the true essence of onboarding. They need to be blended. To gain insights into how courier companies embrace onboarding, for example, we would conduct focus groups with courier deliverers and call centre reps. Then we would have mystery shoppers sign up as new customers to feed back their experiences during the first ninety days.
F EATUR E
Attrition
The flip side to transforming new customers into long-term clients is losing them. Churn is the term used to describe this occurrence. All of us have, at some time, stopped using a company’s product or service because of poor customer servicing, weak product performance, or dated technology. But what about the company as a whole? How dangerous is a churn rate of 3 to 8 per cent, that is, when 3 to 8 per cent of new customers stop using a company’s services after the first year? Look at the telecom industry, as an example. According to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), as of September 2011, there were 26 million wireless phone subscribers. The big three accounted for close to 95 per cent of all these: Rogers led with 9.3 million subscribers, followed by Bell Mobility with 7.4 million, and TELUS with 7.2 million. Assume that (a) these three attract no less than 750,000 new subscribers yearly (CWTA reported that, in the first nine months of 2011, Rogers and TELUS added 331,000 and 240,000 new subscribers, respectively) and (b) $750 to $1,000 is the annual revenue per new subscriber (or about $60 to $80 per month).
These figures mean that annual revenue from new subscribers is $563 million ($750 x 750,000) to $750 million ($1,000 x 750,000). Factoring in a 3 to 8 per cent churn rate, lost revenue could be as high as $60,000,000. Table 1 shows how a churn as low as 3 per cent will result in lost sales of $17 million to $23 million. If churn is 5 per cent, the loss totals $28 million to $38 million. And if the churn creeps to 8 per cent, the loss will be as high as $60 million! The lesson. One of the greatest threats to a company is its own employees, who – by being rude, dismissive or inefficient – terminate customer relationships. Effective complaint resolution should be a priority for all companies. Your customer service support, whether it is one person or a call centre, plays a key role. Customer service reps are those to whom the dissatisfied customer reaches out. They are your interventionists, and they are often the last people to whom customers reach out before cancelling a service or returning a product. Table 2 provides narratives from some call-centre mystery shops we conducted on complaint resolution. Collectively, these narratives should point to a realization by companies that excellent complaint resolution will turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal one.
Table 1: How a Three to Eight Per Cent Churn Rate Impacts Telecom Sales
Annual Revenue per New Subscriber
Number of New Subscribers
Total Revenue (millions)
3% Churn (millions)
5% Churn (millions)
8% Churn (millions)
$750
750,000
$563
$17
$28
$45
$850
750,000
$638
$19
$32
$51
$1,000
750,000
$750
$23
$38
$60
Table 2: How Effective Complaint Resolution Builds Long-term Customer Loyalty
Sector
Shopper Narrative
Banking After I explained my complaint, she immediately apologized and thanked me for calling. I found her sincerity very effective. She made me feel valued. She also went out of her way to explain the various mortgage options, to give me some advice (e.g., to set aside money for legal fees, to go on to the bank’s website for some easy tools), and to thank me again for calling, before wishing me a good day. Courier I got a call back from the director of Client Service. That was impressive. The director apologized and then connected me to the person who had been rude to me, and he apologized as well. I left feeling vindicated and decided not to quit. Pet Food Within three days of my complaint that a can of dog food smelled bad, I received $50 worth of coupons, a personalized letter of apology, and some samples. This was totally unexpected. I really appreciate how hard they are trying to make customers happy.
Shopper felt valued
felt vindicated
was impressed
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Cross-selling
Once new customers have signed up, they are open to learning about other products or services the company offers. Hence, encouraging them to buy other products will foster greater customer loyalty; they can enjoy using other products that the company provides. The email that UPS sends to new customers (see below) captures the essence of cross-selling. UPS is to be applauded. The email begins by informing the customer that shipping rates have been lowered. From there, it goes on to explain that UPS will apply the lower rate to every product shipped; the reader does not have to do anything. The letter then announces two services for which the reader is now qualified, these services providing “a new level of convenience and flexibility.” The message concludes by thanking the new customer for entrusting shipping business to UPS. Dear Valued Customer, Good news: Shipping with UPS now costs you less. We have lowered your shipping rates. Based on your recent shipping activity, the account below qualifies for an upgrade from Retail Rates to Standard List Rates. This means your rates for ground, air and international shipments have been reduced. Best of all, you don’t have to do anything. UPS will automatically apply the change to every package shipped under the account listed. In addition, many customers on Standard List Rates choose to receive one of UPS’s scheduled pickup options, providing you a new level of convenience and flexibility. For example: UPS Smart Pickup SM: When shipments are processed before a designated time of day, a UPS driver will automatically pick up your shipments on days that you have them. UPS Day-Specific Pickup: Pre-select specific business days (from one to four days) that you would like a UPS driver to make a scheduled pickup every week. These pickup options include the convenience of having just one driver coming by for air, ground or international packages. Visit ups.com/pickup options for more pickup options and to choose logistics solutions that make your world work better. We thank you, as a new customer, for the business you entrust to UPS.
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The lesson. Do not rely only on your sales reps and call centres to cross-sell. Use email as well. Follow-up
Follow-up plays a pivotal role in onboarding. After a customer signs up, there are three possible outcomes: a well-executed follow-up, no follow-up, or a mishandled follow-up. Outcome 1. The follow-up is well executed. It is timely (executed within three days after sign-up), helpful (provides information, answers questions, gives advice), personal (is made in a phone call or customized letter), and sales-driven (gives the customer the opportunity to learn about other products or services that the company offers). Mystery shopper comments from a recent courier study exemplify these positives: Within a day of signing up, I got a voice mail inviting me to call a 1-800 number if I needed further help. I then got a welcome kit in the mail. There was information on troubleshooting, tips on how to cut shipping costs, and an instructional DVD. I received a welcome call to see if I had any questions, to make sure I was aware of the benefits of my new accounts, to give me a contact phone number should I have any further questions, and to advise me that I would be contacted further from time to time. Outcome 2. The new customer is not followed up: no mail, no email, no phone call – nothing. To make matters worse, mystery shops reveal that no less than ten per cent of the new customer sign-ups are with reps who tell the customers that they will follow up, but they never do. Goodwill and trust have been compromised. It is no surprise that, in some of the focus groups we subsequently conducted, participants mentioned cancelling their service once they found there was no follow-up. Outcome 3. The follow-up is mishandled. Errors made when the follow-up is by mail or email include these: •n ot personalizing the welcome kit (e.g., no cover letter explaining why the material was sent) • s ending the wrong information (e.g., material on mortgages was sent, when the customer signed up for a mutual fund)
F EATUR E
• s ending incomplete information (e.g., the welcome kit did not include fees) • s ending the same material several times. Errors made by phone include the following: • taking three weeks to follow up • f ailure of reps to identify themselves by name or to give their phone extension •u nder the pretense of following up, conducting a survey that would share the information with other departments for marketing purposes Unfortunately, the incidence of poorly executed follow-ups is high. There are several reasons why: No procedures are in place, making the follow-up a “hit or miss” proposition. There is weak support from senior management. Too many people are involved in the process. The lesson. The follow-up is often poorly done and ends up alienating new customers rather than drawing them closer. Put together clear procedures; get executive buy-in; and keep the process simple – whoever signed the customer up, should be the one to follow up. Conclusion
Customer onboarding builds customer trust and loyalty early in the relationship. When successfully implemented, onboarding translates into increased customer satisfaction, leading to more business with the same customer. Embedded in customer onboarding are three key components: complaint resolution, cross-selling and followup. To succeed in onboarding, you must be committed to all of these. Onboarding is not rocket science. The old-school gas retailers from fifty years ago had it right: New customers will become loyal if they are charged fairly and their essential needs are well met. That’s all.
David Lithwick is principal of Market Alert (www.marketalert. ca), a Toronto-based competitive intelligence consultancy. Prior to Market Alert, David worked in banking, as a CI analyst, and in advertising, managing the Pfizer, SC Johnson, and Wendy’s Restaurants accounts. Sylvia Helene Perras works with David on CI and mystery shopping assignments. She has an MBA in human resources and 25 years of experience in telecommunications marketing and clinical administration.
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RRS
RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM Since 1994, the RRS has allowed respondents to verify the legitimacy of a research project; helped legislators and regulators differentiate between legitimate survey researchers and unscrupulous telemarketers, phishers and scammers; and protected the industry from unnecessary and unwanted regulation.
RRS
MRIA’s Research Registration System (RRS) has long been a cornerstone self-regulatory mechanism for the marketing, survey and public opinion research and market intelligence industry in Canada. Combined with other self-regulatory initiatives such as our Code of Conduct and Good Practice and our Charter of Respondent Rights, the RRS has paid huge dividends in protecting the industry’s positive reputation and good name with Canadians. All Gold Seal and Basic Corporate Research Agency members of the Association are obligated to register all of their research projects with the RRS, and ClientSide Corporate members are encouraged to require their agency suppliers to do so. MRIA’s Research Agency Council provides strategic, policy-level oversight of the Research Registration System, and receives aggregate data-only on the System’s performance. Questions about the Research Registration System should be addressed to Sylvie Corbeil-Peloquin, Manager, Member Services, at 1-888-602-6742 or 905-602-6854, ext. 8726 or scorbeil@mria-arim.ca or, in her absence, Executive Director Brendan Wycks at ext. 8724 or bwycks@mria-arim.ca.
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice For Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007):
Section A (5) Members must uphold the MRIA Charter of Respondent Rights.
Charter of Respondent Rights, Article 2 You can verify that the research you have been invited to participate in is legitimate in one of two ways. You can either obtain a registration number and the MRIA’s toll-free telephone number for any research registered in the MRIA’s Research Registration System or you can obtain the contact information of the research director who is conducting the study.
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE REGISTERED RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH THE RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM DURING MARCH AND APRIL 2012: GOLD SEAL CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES Advanis Inc Advitek Inc. BBM Analytics Blue Ocean Contact Centers Campaign Research Canadian Viewpoint Inc. CIDO Research Consumer Vision Corsential ULC EKOS Research Associates Inc. Elemental Data Collection Inc. Forum Research Inc. GfK Research Dynamics Harris/Decima Inc. Hotspex Inc. Ipsos Matrix Research Limited MBA Recherche MD Analytics Inc. Millward Brown MQO Research Mustel Research Group Ltd. Nanos Research NRG Research Group Opinion Search Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc. Research House Research Now Tann Research Services Inc. Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus TNS Canadian Facts Trend Research Inc. BASIC CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES Gryphon Reputation Management Illumina Research Partners Network Research Field Services Inc Nexus Market Research Inc. Panoptika Inc. Quality Response Inc. Strategic Moves Sylvestre Marketing INDIVIDUAL MEMBER ORGANIZATION R.I.S. Christie
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R E S E ARCH AG E N CY COUNC I L N E W S
RAC Board Task Force on
Gold Seal Membership Adam Froman
Members of the Research Agency Council (RAC) who represent, serve, lead and advocate for MRIA’s Corporate Research Agency members, within the context of MRIA’s overall mission, have developed a Mission Statement that is currently before the MRIA Board of Directors. As part of that mission, the RAC has identified that one of the roles to effectively represent the interest of Research Agencies includes: Ensure that Corporate Research Agency members are benefiting from their membership and receiving value for their dues and fees; continually seek new ways to add value to these members; and assist them to retain the status of Gold Seal-Certified Corporate Research Agency member, if so earned. Corporate members who have received Gold Seal status have successfully completed a stringent, third-party-reviewed, certification process that agencies undergo every three years after initial certification. Gold Seal Certification is one of MRIA’s primary mechanisms for achieving its strategic objective of developing and delivering world-class professional standards and ensuring member compliance. Gold Seal Membership has been declining over the past two years with a 10 per cent drop in the number of Gold Seal companies and there is a concern that Gold Seal Membership will not rebound as there are currently no prospective applicants. Currently, there is general consensus among the RAC Board that while the Gold Seal Membership process is sufficiently rigorous from the standpoint of ensuring compliance and integrity of the process, the importance of having Gold Seal membership in the marketplace, and how Gold Seal membership delivers tangible benefits to those who have attained it, need to be reviewed. As a result, the RAC Board has established a task force to assess the value of Gold Seal Membership among existing Gold Seal members, Basic Corporate Members and nonmembers in order to make recommendations about how to increase the perceived and tangible value of Gold Seal Membership among corporate research agencies, to review the eligibility of Gold Seal membership and to determine any incremental revenue potential that Gold Seal Membership can provide to the MRIA.
The Task Force is made up of the following RAC Board Members: •A dam Froman, CEO, AskingCanadians (Task Force Chair) •A my Charles, Senior Vice President, Ipsos Loyalty Canada •M ark Wood, Vice President, Research & Incite Consultants • Steve Willson, Partner, Panoptika Inc. The following areas will be assessed: •U nderstanding the perception of value of Gold Seal Membership among - Gold Seal Members - Basic Corporate Members - Research Clients •R eviewing the eligibility of Gold Seal membership to address the changing landscape of marketing research in Canada providing potential for other organizations to benefit from Gold Seal membership (e.g.. <75% of revenues from MR, less than four employees, technology companies, new entrants) •D etermining how to increase awareness and importance of the value of Gold Seal membership among potential Gold Seal members, as well as research clients • I dentifying potential changes to the value proposition of Gold Seal membership that will encourage more research agencies to become Gold Seal members •U nderstanding the current penetration of Gold Seal membership, and the market potential to the MRIA from Gold Seal membership The goal of the Task Force will be to make recommendations to the MRIA Board with the intent to revitalize and realize the potential of Gold Seal Membership within the Canadian marketing research industry. The Task Force is planning to provide its report on Gold Seal membership by the end of this summer. If you would like to share your opinions on Gold Seal Certification or have recommendations on how to attract more research agencies to pursue Gold Seal Certification, please share your opinions by emailing Adam Froman at afroman@delvinia.com. vue June 2012
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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY (QRR) In accordance with federal privacy laws, MRIA’s Qualitative Research Registry (QRR), or Registre de la recherche qualitative (RRQ) in French, was created to provide an ongoing, user-friendly vehicle for tracking those who do not want to be contacted or should not be contacted for qualitative research studies.
QRR is a comprehensive do not call list of those who have recently participated in qualitative research studies, those who have asked not to be contacted further, and those felt by recruiters and moderators to be best served by not being contacted. These respondents are marked as “do not call” in accordance with established MRIA Standards. All field and full-service companies are encouraged to submit a list of their qualitative respondents for entry into the QRR system each month, including those who do not wish to be contacted. Participating firms will receive monthly updates of respondents to be screened from qualitative recruitment samples. QRR works effectively to increase the quality and integrity of the qualitative research process, by serving as a control to ensure respondents are not contacted more frequently than is necessary. However, the ability of the system to function effectively is directly related to the co-operation received from firms who provide recruitment services. If you are a full service research firm or field supplier that is currently participating in the Qualitative Research Registry program – thank you very much and keep up the good work! If you are not currently participating, please get involved! If you are interested in submitting to QRR, please visit the MRIA website at www.mria-arim.ca/ QRD/QualResearchRegistry.asp for further explanation and guidance on how to submit qualitative research participants’ names, along with the required electronic forms.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO: QRRQ@MRIA-ARIM.CA Submission templates and payment forms can be found at www.mria-arim.ca/QRD/QualResearchRegistryForms.asp
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE SUBMITTED NAMES TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY FOR MARCH AND APRIL 2012 ATLANTIC Opinion Search Tann Research/Head Count
ONTARIO Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Consumer Vision Dawn Smith Field Management Services Inc. I & S Recruiting Ipsos Reid Nexus Research Opinion Search Quality Response R.I.S. Christie Research House Inc. Research Professionals Tann Research/Head Count
QUEBEC Ipsos Reid MBA Recherche Opinion Search Research House Inc.
WEST Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Ipsos Reid Opinion Search Research House Inc. SmartPoint Research Inc. Trend Research
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice for Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007), Section C Rules Specific to the Conduct of Qualitative Research: 20. R ecruiters should provide accurate data to the Qualitative Research Registry, where such exists, on a consistent basis and check all respondents against the Registry.
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21. M oderators buying recruiting services should give primary consideration to recruiting agencies which submit to the Qualitative Research Registry, where such a service exists, on a regular and ongoing basis.
Summer is a great time… to join MRIA Starting on July 3,
new members can join at the following pro-rated rates for a membership valid until December 31, 2012: • Regular member: $215* • New practitioner with less than two years of work experience in the industry: $119* * plus $70 activation fee, plus taxes
HOW’S THAT FOR A HOT DEAL! To join MRIA as a new Individual member, visit the MRIA Portal at www.mriaportal-arimportail.ca
GOLD SEAL–CERTIFIED CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES The Research Agencies listed below have earned the right to display MRIA’s Gold Seal–Certified logomark. MRIA congratulates and salutes them.
GOLD SEAL–CERTIFIED CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES
Gold Seal Certification is a world class mark of distinction. It is earned by Research Agencies through a comprehensive self-assessment, follow-up interview, and sample evidence examination process — conducted by an independent, third party Reviewer from a major Canadian CA firm – which attests to their being consistently in compliance with MRIA’s rigorous professional standards. For clients, Gold Seal-Certified status means a trusted choice – that they can choose a research supplier with confidence, one that has earned MRIA’s seal of approval and must continually re-earn that distinction by passing a Certification Review once every two years. For MRIA, Gold Seal Certification is a key self-regulatory program that is the envy of other marketing research industry Associations in the United States and around the world.
Academica Group ACCE International Advanis Inc Advitek Inc. AskingCanadians BBM Analytics BBM Canada Blue Ocean Contact Centers BrandSpark International Campaign Research Canadian Viewpoint Inc. Cido Research COMPAS Inc. Consumer Vision Ltd. Corbin Partners Inc. Corporate Research Associates Corsential ULC CRC Research CROP Inc. EKOS Research Associates Inc. Elemental Data Collection Inc. Environics Research Group Limited Focal Research Consultants Ltd. Forum Research Inc. Foundation Research Group Inc. Fresh Squeezed Ideas GfK Research Dynamics Harris/Decima Inc. Hay Research International Head Research Inc. Hotspex Inc. Ifop North America Insightrix Research Inc. Insignia Marketing Research Inc. Ipsos Ipsos ASI Ipsos Reid Ipsos Reid Public Affairs Ipsos Reid UU
Kermode Business Services Inc. Lang Research Inc. Leger Marketing Maritz Research Canada Market Probe Canada Matrix Research Limited MBA Recherche McWhirter & Associates MD Analytics Inc. Millward Brown MQO Research Mustel Research Group Ltd. Nanos Research NRG Research Group Opinion Search Inc. Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc. Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. POLLARA PRA Inc. Pricing Solutions Ltd. Quorus Consulting Group Inc. R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd. Radix Market Research Research & Incite Consultants Research Dimensions Research House Inc. Research Management Group Research Now Research Strategy Group Inc. Resinnova Research Inc. Shop’n Chek Canada Tann Research Services Inc. Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus The Logit Group Inc. The Verde Group Thinkwell Research TNS Canadian Facts Toluna Trend Research Inc.
The Gold Seal Certification process is open to all MRIA Corporate Research Agency Members that have been in continuous operation in Canada for at least two years, regardless of firm size, structure or number of employees. For more information on MRIA Corporate Memberships or our Certified Marketing Research Professional (CMRP) designation for individual practitioners, visit www.mria-arim.ca.
2011-2012
AWARDS
& RECOGNITION
Awards and Recognition serve critical functions within a professional association. They provide motivation for the many volunteers upon whose efforts the association depends. They provide an opportunity for the self-promotion within the association that puts a positive face on our activities and makes people feel good about belonging to the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA). They also serve to highlight leadership and examples of excellence, in all areas, which are powerful ways of communicating the ideals and direction of the association.
MRIA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2012 Excellence in Research Awards competition, sponsored this year by Market Probe. Submissions were made in most of the eleven categories and the seven winners were announced at the Gala Awards Dinner held during the 2012 National Conference that recently concluded in St. John’s Newfoundland. Winners received the coveted and beautiful Excellence Crystal as a tribute to their pursuit of excellence and for setting a shining example for future winners. The list of winners can be viewed at www.mria-arim.ca/AWARDS/ExcelAwards05.asp
This year’s Excellence Awards are generously sponsored by
BEST IN CLASS AWARD 2011 Sylvestre Marketing for PepsiCo Canada “Pepsi Refresh Program” BEST IN CLASS AWARD 2011 Kraft Foods & Fresh Squeezed Ideas, IPSOS, Nielsen “Big, Bold and Brewed to Perfection” BEST INTEGRATION AWARD 2011 Environics Research Group & IMS Brogan Inc. for SANOFI BEST INTEGRATION AWARD 2011 Corbin Partners Inc, MBA Recherche & Leger Marketing for Counsel for Canada Bread MURRAY PHILP ALTRUISTIC AWARD 2011 Upwords Marketing Solutions for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada PUBLIC POLICY IMPACT AWARD 2011 Corbin Partners Inc. & Lerners for CBC & Bell Media “A little birdie told me” CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHER IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS AWARD 2011 Marina Gutman, Knowledge and Insights Manager, Juice Business Unit, Coca-Cola The eminent members of the 2012 Judging Panel for the Excellence in Research Awards represent research practitioners from many different areas: Chair: Kimberlee Niziol Jonas – MRIA Immediate Past-President, GlaxoSmithKline Judges: Ed Gibson, CMRP – CRC Research • Gail Tibbo, CMRP – Incisive Marketing • Donald Williams – NADbank Inc. • John G. Ball, CMRP – Opus Enterprises
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PEOPLE AND COMPANIES IN THE NEWS •T o read more news online, or to submit your “People and Companies in the News”, s imply fill out our online form at www.mria-arim.ca/PEOPLE/People.asp.
• The Vue editorial team reserves the right to select and edit your submission for appearance in Vue. • MRIA is neither responsible for the accuracy of this information nor liable for any false information.
Dubai Office for Ipsos Interactive Online market research specialist Ipsos Interactive Services (IIS) has opened an office in Dubai, where it has appointed former Maktoob Research exec Dima Hijjawi as an Account Manager. Established in 1998, IIS provides panel-based research services, and combines market research expertise, technical knowledge and a variety of online data collection methods. Hijjawi began her research career at Maktoob Research in 2008 as a Research Coordinator, and most recently served as Senior Business Development Analyst at Yahoo! following its takeover of online community Maktoob.com www.ipsos.com CRTC Completes First Round of Telemarketer On-Site Inspections of 13 telemarketing companies located in Toronto and Montreal. These inspections were conducted to ensure telemarketers are following the rules and not calling Canadians who have registered their numbers on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). The majority of telemarketers inspected are following the rules, although some minor breaches were uncovered. The CRTC will monitor the steps these telemarketers are taking to come into compliance. The CRTC uses a variety of strategies to enforce the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules www.crtc. gc.ca/eng/trules-reglest.htm
Legislation Introduced to Protect Marketing Research Companies from Unfair Labour Department Actions Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA-03) has introduced the Research Fairness Act (H.R. 5915) in the U.S. Congress to prevent marketing research participants from being treated as employees of research companies. The Research Fairness Act would clarify in federal labour law that marketing research respondents and mystery shoppers who receive reimbursement are independent contractors, rather than employees of research companies. www.MarketingResearch.org FedEx Express Canada Achieves Platinum Contact Center Employer of Choice® Certification for Fourth Consecutive Year. The Contact Center Employer of Choice® CCEOC Inc. announced today that all three FedEx Express Canada Customer Service Centres have achieved the prestigious Contact Center Employer of Choice® designation for 2012. This is the ninth consecutive year FedEx Express Canada, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), has participated in the program and achieved certification. The CCEOC designation is valid for twelve months. http://news.van.fedex. com/intl/ca Fresh Intelligence Research Corp., a progressive and innovative market research company is proud to welcome
Amanda Michelangeli as the newest member to join their Operations team. As a Quality Assurance Manager, Amanda will report directly to the Director of Operations and is responsible for maintaining a high level of quality across all accounts and services. www.freshintelligence.com efamro, the European Research Federation, is pleased to welcome two new members, AIMRO, the Association of Irish Market Research Organisations and BAMOR, the Bulgarian Association of Marketing and Opinion Researchers. AIMRO was established in January 1993 to represent the interests of the market research profession in the Republic of Ireland. AIMRO currently represents 10 research businesses. www.efamro.eu Millward Brown welcomes Patty Shepherd to the Toronto team as Senior Director. Patty brings an extensive background in marketing and advertising agency management as well as qualitative, custom and syndicated marketing research on both the client and supplier sides. She attributes this 360-degree perspective to helping her build longlasting relationships with people and brands, and mining them for the most meaningful insights to action. www.millwardbrown.com Leger Marketing is happy to announce the promotion of three key employees
People and Companies in the News sponsored by:
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at its USA office. Ron Cosgrove, partner, has been promoted to President USA and Robert Kaplan-Sherman, partner, will now serve as Corporate Chief Researcher. Additionally, Bruce Shandler becomes strategic advisor to the CEO and Board Member of Leger Marketing. Previously, Ron Cosgrove was President of the Health Care Division at TRIG and prior to that Senior Vice-President at TNS. Robert Kaplan-Sherman was President of the Services Division at TRIG and was Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of Research at LRA Worldwide. Bruce Shandler was CEO of TNS-Intersearch in USA. www.legermarketing.com Confirmit, the leading global software provider for Customer Experience, Employee Engagement and Market Research, announced today that TMC, an integrated media company, has named Confirmit as a recipient of a Customer Interaction Solutions 2012 CRM Excellence Award. Customer Interaction Solutions has been the premier publication in the CRM, contact centre and teleservices industries since 1982. Winners were chosen on the basis of their product or service’s ability to help extend and expand the customer relationship to become all-encompassing, covering the entire enterprise and the entire customer lifecycle. www.confirmit.com 76% of People Conduct Online Searches in Two or More Languages It might be assumed that not many people conduct online searches in more than one language. However, results from a global survey undertaken by leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, suggest quite the opposite, that a significant 76% do. Occupations one might most readily associate with the Internet – IT and Marketing – topped the list of those who are most likely to search in more than one language. www.greenlightdigital.com AskingCanadians and Ryerson University Release Groundbreaking Report Identifying the Motivators for Participating in Online Market Research AskingCanadians, in partnership
with Ryerson University, released a groundbreaking report about the future of panellist engagement and the key factors that motivate consumers to participate in online market research. To read the entire press release, click here. www.mria-arim.ca/NEWS/PDF/AC_ Ryerson_FedDev_Release_052912.pdf NADbank Inc. (Newspaper Audience Databank) has released product, retail shopping, and lifestyle data from the 2011 Study. With this release, product, retail shopping, and lifestyle data is available for 21 urban markets across Canada. The 2011 Study database includes responses of 25,216 from Canadian adults 18 years and older. Extensive information was collected on 30 major product and lifestyle categories ranging from alcoholic beverage consumption to lifestyle changes to leisure and business travel. In addition, the study covers 21 different shopping categories, ranging from automotive services and supplies to shopping malls. The product questionnaires are customized by market to reflect retail differences, as well as general and local market environments. To read the entire release, www.nadbank.com Award for Future Industry Leaders in the Americas. ARIA is very proud to announce the names of the winners in the inaugural edition of The Manolo Award: •M artha Alicia López Contreras, from the firm Pearson in Mexico City • Maria Belén Gonzalo, from the firm Datos Claros in Buenos Aires, Argentina For more information about The Manolo Award or ARIA, please contact Alex Garnica, ARIA Executive Director: alex.garnica@aria-americas.org Ruth Corbin Advises Parliamentary Committee on IP Policy. Dr. Ruth Corbin appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science & Technology in Ottawa on May 16, to make recommendations for Canada’s future policy on innovation and intellectual property. Dr. Corbin’s presentation was based on the CorbinPartners Inc. research report “Intellectual Property in the 21st Century,” for which the Conference
Board of Canada had received an MRIA Award of Excellence. www.corbinpartners.com Global Research Business Network Agrees on a Programme of Work for 2012-2013 Following meetings in London and Miami attended by representatives of national associations in 17 countries, the Global Research Business Network has agreed on a programme of work for 2012-13. Each element of the programme will be led by one federation in the network. EFAMRO will lead development in the area of standards and self regulation. ARIA will lead the development of new initiatives to measure the growth and predict the future development of the research sector. APRC will lead development of GRBN information resources. This will not only create a central resource for shared knowledge and information, but will also feed into the development of conferences, training and qualifications across the network. It will be the cornerstone of a community of practice dedicated to promoting and advancing the business of research. www.efamro.eu SSI’s CEO Kees de Jong Transitions to New Role and has been appointed Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective June 29, 2012. De Jong’s area of focus will be strategic development. Additionally he will continue to play a key role in SSI’s thought leadership in online and offline sampling and data collection methods and support the expansion of SSI’s partnerships. The Board has appointed Chris Fanning to succeed De Jong in the position of Chief Executive Officer. Fanning, who joined SSI in February 2012 as President and COO brings 25 years of experience in business management, executive leadership, strategic planning and operational roles. www.surveysampling.com Walmart and Research Management Group (RMG) Have Selected AskingCanadians™ as the exclusive partner to host Walmart Canada’s online customer research community. Walmart Canada customers who have given their permission to participate in market research will be invited to vue June 2012
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join the AskingCanadians™ research community. Customers who choose to do so will have the opportunity to take part in Walmart Canada and AskingCanadians™ The CASRO Institute for Research Quality (CIRQ) has awarded certification to Burke, Inc. for compliance with the ISO 20252 Standard for Market, Opinion and Social Research. ISO 20252 establishes globally recognized terms, definitions, and service requirements for research organizations. Processes outlined in ISO 20252 are designed to produce transparent, consistent, welldocumented and error-free methods of conducting and managing research projects. The CASRO Institute for Research Quality (CIRQ) has also awarded certification to Millward Brown’s Africa, Middle East & Asia Pacific (AMAP) Region for compliance to the ISO 20252 Standard for Market, Opinion and Social Research. The scope of certification to ISO 20252 is intended to cover marketing research services for the following locations within the AMAP region of Millward Brown: Singapore (headquarters), Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Australia and China businesses also have been ISO 20252 certified under a different process. More information on CIRQ’s certification can be found on the CIRQ Registry of Certified Companies. Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, has been named to the American
Marketing Association’s prestigious Honomichl Top 50 list of leading U.S. marketing research companies for the second year in a row. The Walthambased company is the fastest-rising company on the list in 2012, moving up to number 38 after debuting at number 49 in 2011. Affinnova is the third fastest-growing research company in the country, with an annual growth rate of 41.5%. A recent year-long study found that 64% of client initiatives tested using Affinnova’s IDDEA software produce optimized concepts that outscore their leading competitor, while pre-optimization concepts from the same initiatives bested their leading competitor only 22% of the time. www. affinnova.com CRTC Completes First Round of Telemarketer On-Site Inspections in Toronto and Montreal. These inspections were conducted to ensure telemarketers are following the rules and not calling Canadians who have registered their numbers on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). The initial inspections focused on telemarketers in a number of industries, which were chosen based on the trends in complaints submitted by Canadians. Inspections were carried out in Toronto the week of May 14, 2012 and Montreal the week of June 4, 2012. To date, the CRTC has issued a total of 179 citations and 48 notices of violation with monetary penalties. The CRTC’s enforcement actions have yielded over $2.2 million in penalties and over $740,000 in payments to post-secondary institutions.
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS: Video on the National Do Not Call List www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqo0z-B9Bd0 Key facts for consumers www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/t1031.htm Key facts for telemarketers www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/t1032.htm How does the CRTC enforce the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules? www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/t1040.htm
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CANADA’S LEADING PROVIDER OF MARKETING RESEARCH EDUCATION FOR PROFESSIONALS
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4 202-Questionnaire Design
4 203-Marketing Research Statistics & Data Analysis
4 204-Qualitative Marketing Research
4 301-Competitive Intelligence, Competitor Benchmarking and Mystery Shopping
4 302-Market Intelligence
4 303-Marketing Management for Researchers
4 401-Online Research, Best Practices and Innovations
4 403-Advanced Qualitative Marketing Research Techniques
For more details or to register, visit our website at www.mria-arim.ca/EDUCATION/Online.asp
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P ROFESSIONAL DE VE LO PME NT
MRIA INSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUT DE DÉVELOPPEMENT PROFESSIONNEL DE L’ARIM
Congratulations to our Newest Award Recipients! MRIA-IPD extends hearty congratulations to the winners of our 2011/2012 awards! National Academic Awards Competition: A.B. Blankenship Award Mr. Abhay Tiwari - Harris/Decima Formerly of Algonquin College’s MBIR Program
Joseph Doyle Award Mr. Gyan Harshvardhan, CMRP Vice President, Client Service - TNS Canadian Facts
OFFICAL SPONSORS
MRIA-IPD would like to once again thank Hotspex Marketing Research for their generous sponsorship of this year’s National Academic Awards Competition. For more information on the Awards presented by MRIA-IPD annually, please visit www.mria-arim.ca
MRIA-IPD is now taking sponsorship applications for the 2012/2013 Academic Year. Please contact Fania Borok, Manager Professional Development & Certification to discuss. fborok@mria-arim.ca • 1-888-602-6742 x8728
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vue Be Heard Be Seen Be Vue’d
2012 EDITORIAL
CALENDAR
Thank you for the support you have shown for Vue magazine over the years and we look forward to counting you among our print and digital advertisers in 2012. We welcome inquiries from advertisers, authors, students and the business community.
Month
Editorial
Submission Deadline
January / February
MOBILE RESEARCH
January 3
March
ENTREPRENEURSHIP February 3
April
FINANCIAL March 2
May
MR IN MINING RESOURCES (and nat’l conf 2012 )
April 3
June
MEDIA AND JOURNALISM
May 3
July / August
TOURISM
June 4
September
EDUCATION
August 3
October
GOVERNMENT AND DIVERSITY
September 3
November
BRANDING AND ADVERTISING
October 3
December
THE FUTURE - LOOKING AHEAD
November 2
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COLUMNISTS
CSRC Digital Research and Social Media Kristian Gravelle Kraft Canada
Calling all Client-Side Researchers to participate in the next CSRC Social Connect in Toronto! The most recent event in our series of Social Connects took place June 14, 2012 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. Following our established platform, the program was a mix of informal idea exchange combined with three speakers who stimulated discussion based on subject matter relevant to the theme of the event. The event focused on Digital Research and Social Media. There was a significant amount of buzz and discourse on this subject. In the spirit of continuing the debate and driving organizations to excel at integrating this type of research within their organizations, the CSRC is pleased to have had the following leaders participate: Monica Alfonso – Unilever Vinu George – Microsoft Andrew Cosky – AOL Each speaker brought their own poignant point of view and shared best practices.
TWO SOLITUDES Isabelle Landreville, M.Sc. Sylvestre Marketing
Welcome to our column! Bienvenue! I’m thrilled to introduce you to this monthly cultural snapshot, featuring Hugh MacLennan’s infamous Two Solitudes of Quebec and the ROC: French vs. English, Catholic vs. Protestant, Latin Roots vs. Anglo-Saxon. Both solitudes are unique in almost every light and companies that come across the Saint Lawrence without realizing that, face grave difficulties that could literally leave their product on the shelves entirely. The Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola wars are a prime example of this. Whereas Coke approached the Quebec market the way they had globally (with great success), Pepsi spoke to the individual Quebecker, playing into Quebec’s own 40
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language, culture and clichés. An easy French rhyme for a tagline (Ici C’est Pepsi – literally, “here, it’s Pepsi”) and a strategic series of Quebec-centric ads told Quebeckers their opinions and values were important to the company. In return, Quebeckers committed themselves to Pepsi and sincerely believe that the brand is simply part of Quebec’s heritage. English Canadians however, simply embraced Coke’s global, universal message “Open Happiness” and Pepsi’s enticing “Refresh Everything.” What Pepsi tapped into is the fact that Quebeckers want to be spoken to on a personal level. When it comes to selling something in La Belle Province, a company has to be prepared to cater their approach to the French Canadian market. In the rest of Canada however, inclusiveness and universality strike a cord: The Canadian Mosaic, not the American Melting Pot. These differences also apply to moderating styles and research designs. Week after week, we’ll share our experience with the Two Solitudes and demystify Quebec and ROC, one component at a time. Cultural context is everything! A tiny nuance in context can mean the difference between victory and defeat. We won’t let anything get lost in translation.
STANDARDS Ethical Issues in Market Research-Sensitive Topics Donald Williams NADbank
As Jane Sojka and Eric R. Spangenberg, point out in their seminal piece, “Ethical Concerns in Marketing Research”, “researchers are finding themselves closer to their subjects: both in terms of physical proximity and level of intimacy.” Social impact studies as well as ethnographic research are two areas that push the limit on the ethical boundary. A number of sections in the MRIA Code cover some of these issues, for example, Section E under Interviewing Children and Young People, Special Care, serves as a valuable guide.
COLUMN I STS
The Researcher must take into account the degree of maturity of the child or young person involved when considering what subjects may or may not be safely dealt with in an interview. While it may be imperative to avoid certain subjects when interviewing children (e.g. a topic which might frighten the child), the same subject might quite safely be covered with young people if the appropriate precautions are taken. This again is a question of good research practice as much as of ethics. The guidelines covered under special care also addressed specific situations that may face the researcher. It is important to follow these steps carefully in order to prevent potential ethical pitfalls. The main challenge that many marketing researchers face with regard to conducting research on sensitive topics or illegal activities, is how to manage a situation where one may be observing someone taking “illegal” drugs or asking questions about whether or not the interviewee committed a “crime” (a crime that they might have never been convicted for). Researchers face the possibility of going beyond the ethical boundary and while in some situations there may be several options, it is hard to deduce from normal social context, the (ethically) right thing to do in each specific situation. I suggest at least applying the following basic guidelines: 1. For studies involving the collection of information about illegal activities, for example, the use of illegal substances, potential participants should be made aware whether the researcher can or cannot ensure confidentiality. 2. The activity should be conducted by people who are under a professional or an employment obligation to the organization conducting the study; this ensures that respondent confidentiality is maintained. 3. Where possible seek legal advice with regard to potential conflict or “observing illegal activities” which might in the future be brought to a criminal court (makes the researcher a potential witness to a crime). Although the above does not necessarily cover all the potential issues, these guidelines will at least minimize ethical issues.
QUALITAS Small Media, or Large? Ken LeClair Ipsos Reid UU
As qualitative marketing researchers we most often think of media as the vehicle through which our clients communicate
about their products to consumers. And the bag of tools and methodologies we employ have primarily been developed and refined with that purpose in mind. Many of the same approaches are useful when looking at media content and programming, but it is critical to remain aware that measuring reaction to media “content” is a very different undertaking than gauging reaction to advertising placed in those media. It is often challenging to get a good read on branding, engagement, communication and persuasion in relation to a 30 second television spot. When you start considering the complexity of interacting with multi-episode television programs or a set of journalistic styles, genres and principles of reportage, one soon realizes that the number of touch points and foci of reaction and relationship with the content is of a very different scale. And the set of decisions based on the data collected is often very different: it is not about adjusting a limited opportunity for marketing to customers but about the development of long-term relationships among users and types of content. The point is not that we have to throw traditional qualitative tools out the window and invent new ones. But we do have to keep in mind that understanding media content in its various forms and the way it is used by consumers is a very different undertaking than gauging reaction to a (comparatively) limited piece of marketing creative. It doesn’t mean that either of the two undertakings is any more sophisticated or challenging than the other; rather, they are just different. And it’s critical that these differences do not get overlooked just because the research is broadly about media. In other words it is important to remember that the medium can have more than one type of message!
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY Forced Focus Margaret Imai-Compton, CMRP Principal, Imai-Compton Consulting Inc.
Creative work requires not just free-flowing ideas (that’s the fun part) but also a time for focus and concentration (that’s the part that requires discipline). We need both to do our best creative work but there is understandably more enthusiasm and participation with the fun part. The catch is that concentration feels more like work so we tend to avoid it or drop it all together, which means we don’t always get the best results because we’ve essentially only undertaken half of the creative process. vue June 2012
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Here’s a simple shortcut … ditch your laptop or iPad. Now put pen to paper (or a flipchart) and manually write. “What am I writing?” you ask. Write out the problem; write out the ideas, the lists, the questions, possible answers, anything that comes up within the framework of your creative work. The power of writing by hand forces us to concentrate and limits the wandering mind (notice I said the “wandering” mind, not the creative mind). Creativity is still flowing and writing everything down means you can revisit and evaluate later. Since you can’t be writing about one thing and thinking about another, this Forced Focus will add discipline to the free-flowing ideas. So keep writing until you’ve exhausted the creative flow and keep an open, curious mind as you review the output. The Forced Focus technique is surprisingly simple but effective and the crazy, out-of-this-world idea that was written down along with many others could, with a little bit of fine tuning and adjustment, be exactly what you need.
BRAVE NEW WORLD Measuring the Digital Ecosystem Corrine Sandler Fresh Intelligence Research Corp.
Media impressions are no longer enough to evaluate the true potential of a media buy. The moment in which an ad is viewed once by a visitor is meaningless in today’s world as it is purely a navigational metric. Measuring what you did (via
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advertising or public relations vehicles) and measuring what they thought, which includes all the mental responses but not actions of the target audience, will only tell half the story. Evaluative metrics is what is required to truly assess a campaign on a holistic level as these metrics include what they did, which includes all the actions taken by the members of your target audience in response to your campaign. In a sense we can do this through reverse tracking; however, the accuracy of these tools is limited as people often forget why they picked a brand, or they subconsciously suppress the knowledge that they were swayed by PR, or other reasons. But there is a much bigger picture we now need to consider – the digital ecosystem. This system is critical to evaluate, as campaigns are often planned and executed in multiple ways across several channels with many touch points. Let’s take a reality show as an example. A reality TV show is typically featured on a network, has a web presence, a mobile site, a Facebook fan page and maybe even behind the scene interviews on YouTube. A holistic measurement approach is needed to capture true engagement of fans, friends and fanatics. The overall impact and purchase funnel measures that can be linked to this digital ecosystem will give a true read on the campaign and ascertain what possible small investment drove brand equity measures and, most importantly, actual purchase. These are real, actionable insights that media campaigns need to now consider to play in this ever evolving digital campaign landscape.
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